Yes, specialized hardware is coming, but it's in a weird state right now where only one manufacturer (Avalon) is shipping, but they're charging enormous prices for theirs, and the other manufacturer (BFL) is 8 months behind schedule, without a unit in customer's hands.

Actually, with the recent rise in the price of BTC, it is still very profitable to mine on a GPU. My recommendation would be to try it out, and just become familiar with the basics. Once you're comfortable with the concept of Bitcoins and pooled mining, then start to worry about adding more and more mining hardware.

Step 1: Do you already have a GPU to test on? If yes, what kind? If no, how cheap can you purchase a high-end ATI GPU? Really, anything from the Radeon HD 5xxx or newer should work.

Step 2: Download the Bitcoin software. Run it, and let it sync with the network. You won't actually be using this to mine, but you need an address to send your BTC to.

Step 3: Create an account at a pool. I would highly recommend Ozcoin. The pool is very stable, fair, and just plain awesome. Be sure to enter the payout address from your client from step 2.

Step 4: Download and run a mining software to mine on your GPU from step 1. CGMINER is IMO the best miner around, even if you don't use all of it's features. Run the software, and point it to the pool from step 3.

I agree with almost everything said above. Starting out with GUIMiner is much easier for the beginner tho. I had a hell of a time trying to get cgminer working on win8. With the rising interest in bitcoin in general even mining with gpu's will remain profitable for the next 3 months...I hope.

zif

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